Voice Of Free Iraq Walks Out On US

The Guardian (UK) ^ | 8-6-2003 | Brian Whitaker

[agitator]

if this is true, it is not good nooz

[vbmoneyspender]

Stephen Claypole, who was a public affairs adviser to Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad, said: "It's very typical of everything the Americans get involved in. They announce large budgets and the money is never released."

Yeah, Americans are lousy at everything. That is why our country is so screwed up and nobody wants to come here.

[SAMWolf]

They announce large budgets and the money is never released.

And that's all they care about, getting that "free" American money.

[chachacha]

Failure to invest in the new Iraqi broadcasting service means foreign channels are gaining popularity at the expense of the US

Lets change this statement to a more truthful statement.

The us Failure to bomb the old Iraq propaganda machines.

Now don't come back with how this would look to the rest of the world. I realise we believe in a free press BUT, lets add to that AN HONEST PRESS!

LETS BOMB ALL THE DISHONEST PRESS

[misterrob]

I disagree with some of the sentiments on this thread. we have done a bad job of marketing our side of this war and it shows. The Arab world gets a ton of BS from their press yet we have not countered it in any meaningful way. If we are expecting common sense from these people then perhaps that shows we don't get it yet.

[tsmith130]

Could it also be some State Department bureaucrats mucking up the works???

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

This - from an anti-American propagandists. Never have so many reporters been so deceitful. Forget pro-American press in Iraq....we can't get pro-American press in America.

Our local cable company provides 3 channels for local public school coverage and WE can't get the CENTCOM and DOD briefings - are forced to hear the war news through the wanker-filter...dishonest from day one.

We do have radio and press and TV in Iraq - but the world is big, with thousands of TV, radio and press outlets preaching anti-American pap - incited by a major US political party and our own former Presidents to act against us to weaken America on the world stage...all afraid of Big Good America.

Why are we not acting on this? As Roy Innis said, the first amendment was never supposed to be a suicide pact.

[Yardstick]

if this is true, it is not good nooz

No, it's not, and I'm inclined to believe that it is true. This isn't the first I've heard of problems in the communicating-to-the-people-of-Iraq department. We've got to win over the hearts and minds of the Iraqis, otherwise our job will be a thousand times more difficult. Money spent to get our message out to the Iraqis -- that we're working hard, that progress is being made, that we're on their side -- is money very well spent. If there is such a thing as a morally justified time for propaganda, this is one of them. We shouldn't be skimping on this.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

We have no mainstream voice in the press. Haven't for decades. We do have some voices today, though - and more tools.

It was worse during Vietnam. Cronkite's lies won the day, because we had few ways to check the facts - mail took weeks, internet non-existant.

Today, Americans are being conned daily - either don't care or don't know - wouldn't know unless they check CENTCOM, or have loved ones serving.

It's up to us to get the word out.

A member of Pres. GHW Bush's first admin. wrote a book about the media not allowing a President to fight a war. Solzhenitsyn was onto 'em long ago:

The press has become the greatest power within the western countries,
more powerful than the legislative, the executive, and the judiciary.
One would then ask: By what law has it been elected
and to whom is it responsible?  -  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

The (inter)national mainstream press IS the #1 answer to "why they hate us."

The only solution really is to take them less seriously...and get the facts out, as well as standing up to the liars.

As long as people believe the well-coiffed spinners and noisy activists, people like Hillary Clinton and Fidel Castro stay in power.

[CROSSHIGHWAYMAN]

I can't believe that the US administrators are as incompetant as reported.

Where is the common sense here?

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Only a pro-socialist administration gets positive inter/national press. For Clinton, the war would be covered very differently....the VICTORY it IS would be well-known and the world wankers would jump on board. We are up against a thousand enemy-press voices in Iraq and at home, carefully primed and sharing the DNC talking points.

The Iraqi people survived over 24 years of brutality from the Hussein regime. They may have a more difficult time ignoring the hate speech surrounding them today.

When was the last time you heard a pro-American AMERICAN news outlet?

[Beck_isright]

With the VOA crowd in charge, this is not a suprise. Our foreign broadcasting capacity sucks beyond anyone's imagination.

[Jorge]

Forget pro-American press in Iraq....we can't get pro-American press in America.

This is true.
But we could try harder to get our message across to the Iraqis.

[faithincowboys]

We really haven't invested enough money in media- we need to counter the Iranian mullahs. This is yet more evidence in how bad the State Department has been. The American message doesn't get out and there are too many career diplomats who dislike America and its mission in the world.

[Yardstick]

But I think this is different than working against our left-leaning free press. Relying on the independent media to flak for our project in Iraq would be beyond hopeless. This should be a government operation -- not a free press at all -- getting a very controlled message out to the Iraqis. This should be propaganda (in the best sense of the word).

[Adrastus]

What "we",Jorge? The government? I've seen very little that a career pol/diplomat can't well and truely screw up. Which "we" are you speaking of?

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

How? How?! The American people - even Freepers choose to believe the NY Times - and the rest of the press is following the lead of our enemies.

How?

I know what this administration's been doing in Iraq. I doubt many here cared enough to look past the destructive partisan press for the truth. YES, the Iraqi people need to be strong and need to learn who to trust in the press.

Clinton gave the UN and international socialist NGOS and think tanks unprecidented authority in US foreign policy matters. We have no Jesse Helms sitting on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee defending US from the pro-UN-crook globalists. What THIS administration has accomplished in Iraq even with the forces they're up against (#1 enemy = the VLWC) is nothing short of a miracle. Blaming this administration for the current efforts of the international press is rather like Clinton telling Juanita Broderick, "Put some ice on it."

[arasina]

This is horrible news. What would make this person give up so quickly? What do we have to do...take up a collection for the New Iraqi Media? This is one battle in the WOT we can't afford to lose. And it's raw meat for the anti-war, anti-Bush hyenas.

[MJY1288]

If it was being run by NPR, this is a good thing